free to see equality

recently, my favorite candidate for the u.s. presidency announced his support for gay marriage.  for more on gary johnson's recent announcement, click here.

you know, i've tried to reason with myself about gary johnson and accept the fact that he's not likely to get too far in this election.  i know the far right is not likely to be swayed by a gay marriage supporting, marijuana legalizing, right to choose respecting libertarian.

but then, he makes a move like this, and i just can't stop myself from loving this guy!  i'll accept being naive and unrealistic to cheer for someone who can stand up on risky political issues.

so, inspired by his stand on what i find to be a crucially important liberty issue, i decided to revise something i wrote a couple years ago about my own belief that right to choose a marriage partner should be a protected right.


the right to marry a partner of our own choosing is an essential freedom.  over 40 years ago, the u.s. supreme court protected this right in loving v. virginia by declaring laws prohibiting interracial marriage unconstitutional.

the court stated:
“Marriage is one of the 'basic civil rights of man,' fundamental to our very existence and survival ... Under our Constitution, the freedom to marry, or not marry, a person of another race resides with the individual and cannot be infringed by the State.”

inherent in this case and its placement in history, i find another story about cultural progress.  when government dictates that "we should do this" or "we shouldn't do that," we have less opportunity to fully see what those choices are all about.  conversely, when these restrictions are lifted, as they were by the supreme court in loving v. virginia, individuals are given the opportunity to live the lives they choose, and their free choices are beneficial for us all.  they are the laboratory in which we can see for ourselves what is really true.

at present, there is strong agreement on principles of gender and racial equality, and this is in no small part a result of what we've all witnessed by virtue of the equal opportunities and rights under law.  we've all had the opportunity to experience the truth of equality.

the declaration of independence states, “WE hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.” when this document was written, the word “Men” only truly stood for white males, since members of other races and women were not granted the same rights.

over the many years since then, “Men” in that same document is widely recognized to mean human.  this shift of the meaning in this word written hundreds of years ago is an example of cultural evolution, an evolution that naturally happens, given time and the truth of equality.  and it's what this document means today, with our evolved understanding of who it covers, that foretells where this same-sex marriage debate is headed.

given the inevitable movement of cultural evolution, the question is when, not if, the law on same-sex marriage will change.  the term marriage has already evolved in common usage to include any two adults that decide to join their lives publicly and privately, and really, we're just waiting to see how long it takes for the law to catch up.